Polka dot prints in fashion are timeless! Seen now as fun and whimsical, they weren't always seen that way. In Medieval Europe, they were often seen as representing illness or disease. Because the ability to create evenly spaced dots did not exist at the time, dots on fabric would be scattered in a random pattern- reminding people of pox or rashes. In Shakespeare's "Othello", Desdemona's spotted handkerchief leads to tragedy in the play. In non-Western cultures polka dots symbolized male virility or magic. More densely packed, small dots were indicative of stronger magic. Before dots were called polka dots, dotted...